


bhagiratha

by AllegoriesInMediasRes



Series: Ramayana fics [26]
Category: Hindu Religions & Lore
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Femslash, Infidelity, Oneshot, Pre-Canon, Pre-Ramayana, Pregnancy, Yugantaram
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:20:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25011535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllegoriesInMediasRes/pseuds/AllegoriesInMediasRes
Summary: Bhagiratha was the hero who brought the river Ganga to earth, and he was born of the widowed queens of Dilipa, who lay with each other when they found themselves without an heir. A look at this early canonical femslash pairing.
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Female Character
Series: Ramayana fics [26]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1105638
Comments: 10
Kudos: 9
Collections: Yugantaram 2020





	bhagiratha

Everyone always remarked upon how well Dilipa’s two queens got along with one another.

It is the way of kings to marry again, and the duty of queens to accept their fellow wives with grace, but that does not explain why Veda always oiled Kaveri’s hair with her own hands, instead of leaving it to a maidservant. Why Kaveri always had pleasant smiles and polite words for her _swami_ , but joyous laughter and witty retorts for Veda. Why only Kaveri could staunch Veda’s tears when she, too, proved incapable of bearing an heir for their lord husband.

Veda was the younger queen, the more vulnerable of the two, the one who needed warmth, and Dilipa’s indifference had needled her at first. He was a good man, but he had always belonged more to the past than to the present. Even on his deathbed, he had been haunted by the fates of his sixty thousand great-uncles, whose souls he had never been able to put to rest. Kaveri, contrarily, had always been clever and sprightly and anchored in the _here_ and now.

Half a year after Dilipa breathes his last, Bhagiratha swells in Veda’s womb, and nine months later, she and Kaveri are mothers at last. Bhagiratha adopts his goals from his acknowledged father, but he draws his strength from his mothers’ love, and it is that which permits him to do what all the previous kings of the Sagara dynasty could not.


End file.
